Aa: Ord-phx-lax-hkg-sin-hkg-lax-ord - $1058; 21,371 eqm

I'm a relatively newbie when it comes to mileage runs. Without doing anything unusual I'll finish the year as a Plat+ on AA and will be about 17-18k from ExPlt. Never having had ExPlt, I'm not quite sure it's worth it - the new Plat+ will give me automatic upgrade requests and won't require any of those 500 mile upgrade counts (which are $40/ea). 80-90% of my travel these days is domestic. The System Wide Upgrades will be nice for my few international flights. I'm based in Chicago, which is somewhat ironic - I'd easily have ExPlt if I was based in a non-hub city as all of my flights would have required the to/from that non-hub city. Anyway, why go after ExPlt? About half of my flights are hub to hub and the limited upgrades on those flights seem to go to the ExPlts. I get upgraded on the regional, non-hub flights pretty frequently, so I'm somewhat ambivalent about ExPlt. I don't care too much about the frequent flyer miles - I've got tons of miles banked and could probably take the family on a trip to Europe in 1st class if we felt like doing this. This is more about working towards upgrades as an ExPlt. Worth it?

Having said that, I goofed around with Google flights tonight, not really knowing all that much about how to do creative searches like some of you. The flight I describe above is pretty grueling, and is flying most of a weekend to get those 21k EQMs, which will bring me over the ExPlt finish line. I leave on a Friday morning early and get back pretty early on Monday. The longest layover is about ten hours, shortest is two & a half hours. I'm not really worried about making connections or anything like that. No hotel time, which kind of blows, but I can sleep on planes with no problem. I'll probably feel like crap on Monday and sleep all day Monday, but I'm thinking about it. Heck, once I book this, I might use miles to upgrade to business... although not completely sure I understand all the rules for that.

My question for the forum is whether 21k EQMs on American for $1058 is a worthwhile thing?

The price isnt bad but you can do better. Do you actually want to go to Singapore or are you just looking for decent flight deals? If you just want the miles there are a lot of decent fares to HKG these days and that would be right at 18,000 EQM's. Also, since you are flying out of ORD then you might want to keep an eye on some premium economy fares on BA to Europe as it may be a bit less flying but get 50% bonus on EQM's for a premium economy fare and bit better seat.

If you are strictly domestic flier then I would be hard pressed to strive to hard for EXP but the SWU's and F lounge access on Intl flights would be worth it to me.

So-so at $1k+. I usually just buy the HKG-LAX RT on AA for <$500 and do intra Asia on UL or another carrier as it almost always has a good deal in business. Last time I got UL business for apx $300 so it came out cheaper than what AA wanted for coach on CX (BKK-HKG-BKK segments,) without miles credit due to the fare basis.

I just did something similar to this two weeks ago (PVD-ORD-NRT-SIN-NRT-ORD-PVD). Cost roughly the same and gave me around 20k EQM. I ended up doing a miles+cash upgrade on the ORD-NRT legs (both cleared) and it was a pretty good trip overall.

Going through HKG, you'll have access to The Pier, which is excellent. Way better than the Sakura Lounge in NRT. The lounges in SIN are nothing special, but they're fine. SIN itself is a pretty cool airport with a fair amount to do and see.

Do you actually want to go to Singapore or are you just looking for decent flight deals?

Itís all about earning additional EQMs in a short amount of time for a reasonable price. Donít really have a burning desire to see Singapore again, just looking to build EQM. SIN was the first thing that popped into my mind when I started playing with Google flights.

Correct, I do lots of expensive, last minute, short flights.

Let me ask this, is there an easy way to determine EQM based upon routing and fare on a website somewhere?i monkeyed around with Google flights and then clicked he link to send to AA.com and had to go through seat selection before The AA website told me what I would earn from an EQM perspective.

Thx to all. The ORD-PEK looks good. I’d earn 13k EQM on a single rt flight. That may be enoug, but I think I’ll need 18k. I’ve asked for pointers at the link solewalker highlighted. Worst case, I do the ORD-PEK twice.

Thx to all. The ORD-PEK looks good. Iíd earn 13k EQM on a single rt flight. That may be enoug, but I think Iíll need 18k. Iíve asked for pointers at the link solewalker highlighted. Worst case, I do the ORD-PEK twice.

Need visa for PEK. For this route also try via DFW for more miles, and sometimes cheaper.

Itís all about earning additional EQMs in a short amount of time for a reasonable price. Donít really have a burning desire to see Singapore again, just looking to build EQM. SIN was the first thing that popped into my mind when I started playing with Google flights.

Correct, I do lots of expensive, last minute, short flights.

Let me ask this, is there an easy way to determine EQM based upon routing and fare on a website somewhere?i monkeyed around with Google flights and then clicked he link to send to AA.com and had to go through seat selection before The AA website told me what I would earn from an EQM perspective.

That gives you BIS miles which on AA coach fares is the same, except for those short segments <500 miles.

A simple ORD-LAX-HKG RT gives you 18010 EQM's for about $800 and can be done in a weekend. Though weekend loads seem to be higher so UPG's are more difficult. Plus, at LAX, there's always a line of pax with their CC's out to buy the UPG seats, but you have some luck with it.

I did a LAX-NRT-SIN-NRT-LAX MR over 2 1/2 days, a few weeks back. I opted to do the LAX to NRT route in premium economy for 1.5 EQM/mi, netting 23,003 EQM total. For one, itís a heck of a lot easier than doing the long legs in coach, although the best thing about AA PE is flying the 787. You may want to check out a routes you could get PE (or higher classes with EQM mulitipliers) to help max your time vs EQM.